In-Depth Analysis: Continuous Evolution, Austin Reeves’ Upgrade Secret

The first month of the season is coming to an end. If there was a Most Improved Player list in the league, Austin Reeves would be at the top.

Against the Kings on Monday, he scored a career-high 51 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists. Against the Trail Blazers on back-to-back games on Tuesday, he scored another 41 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Against the Timberwolves on Thursday, he scored 28 points, 16 assists and a buzzer-beater - without Doncic, James or even Marcus Smart around him.

In five games so far this season, Reeves is averaging 34.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 10.0 assists per game. There was no game below 26 points, and the true shooting percentage was 68.7%.

With five years of career in which he has refreshed people's understanding step by step, Reeves seems to have evolved again this season - and this time the degree of "evolution" is very large.

Let me translate for you what is the specific evolution method of this "evolution"?

"Evolutionary Performance": Huge increase in production and efficiency

Let's first look at two pictures:

🔺The five offensive elements of Reeves' career.

Common data items will not be explained. "PSA" stands for 100 shots including free throws and foul shots - which can be understood as similar to the more accurate "true shooting percentage", which is a data that represents scoring efficiency. (The numbers with the background color represent the percentage that this data exceeds that of players at the same position)

We can see that - Reeves has always been a player with outstanding scoring [efficiency] in his career and can even be said to be a top player - and the main reason that hindered his "upgrade" before was that his [production] has not been able to increase.

(The form of expression here is that Usage (possession rate) has always been only at the upper-middle level of defenders. Including AST% (assist rate), it is not particularly outstanding)

This is the reason why outside comments have always said that Reeves is more of a secondary offense/secondary control, mid-level and efficient player (the earliest statement is that he is low-yield and efficient).

But this season. Completely different.

We can even say: Reeves completely subverted everyone's previous understanding of him.

Although the sample size is small, Reeves has exploded into an astonishing ability to increase production in these five games - reflected in the data, first of all, his usage rate has skyrocketed by 10%.

This difference is equal to the growth rate of Grimes and Bridges' breakout seasons. But you must know that Reeves is originally a mid-volume player.

Grimes and Bridges only jumped from low production to mid-level, but Reeves jumped directly from mid-level to high production - not to mention Reeves's assist rate soared by 16%. (The assist rates of Grimes and Bridges have almost remained unchanged)

What this represents is completely different. There are indeed many players in the league who can "get 20 points if given the football rights", but not everyone can become a qualified [ball-handling core] if given the football rights.

What can really be compared with Reeves's explosion in these five games is the goal the Lakers have always set for Xiaoli: Jaylen Brunson.

In his peak season from the Mavericks to the Knicks, Brunson's round share increased by 10%, and his assist rate also increased by 8-9%.

🔺Five elements of Brunson’s career.

Jaylen Brunson is the undoubted top ball-handling core in this league. And through data comparison, we can see that in these five games, what Xiaoli has exploded is the main offensive ability of the "big core with the ball" level.

Of course, since the Lakers now rely solely on Reeves, it will be easier to target defensively - today the Timberwolves retreated and the full-court press was penetrated by Reeves, which was like a wake-up call to the entire league - in the next games where Luka is absent, we may see more early double-teams like the Trail Blazers did in the second half or other aggressive defensive methods used by opponents to prevent Reeves from catching the ball/force Reeves to play.

And Luka and LeBron will eventually return one after another - Reeves' subsequent data will decline, which may be difficult to avoid.

But these five games are still a piece of "evidence" - it reminds us what Reeves' true "base" and "potential" are, and how well he has adapted to the NBA now.

Introduction: What is Reeves’ background?

People's earliest understanding of Reeves' background is that he is a "combination guard with and without the ball" - this is derived from the game form that Reeves showed when he partnered with Westbrook, LeBron, Schroeder, and Russell in the early stages of his career.

But this offseason, after watching some of Reeves's college and high school games, I already have a new concept of Reeves' "background": Like Brunson, he is a player with a "ball-carrying core" or "scoring/organizing all-around core defender" background. (I mentioned this on Weibo during the offseason)

Brunson and Reeves, their ball-handling ability and main attack skills are actually not "developed after entering the league" - they were the core ball-handling players in high school and college, and they are playing like they are now:

🔺Brunson in the upper picture, Reeves in the lower picture. It can be seen that they are even close to the college data.

If you search for Reeves and Brunson's college highlights even earlier, you can clearly see that their current playing style and technical characteristics were already present at that time.

Today’s basketball players usually start training at an early age.

But I want to say that this is a reflection of his ability and also a reflection of his "limitations".

What kind of player needs to frequently use two or even more changes of direction in a one-on-one breakthrough? (This "one-on-one" was added to distinguish Wade from players such as Ginobili and SGA who will make many changes in response to help defense)

The answer is: those players who are not physically fit enough to quickly get rid of the defense on the line.

A good and familiar example is Kyrie Irving.

Irving is the most gorgeous and skillful master of change-of-direction dribbling in history. But change of direction dribbling is actually a skill he developed to make up for his own shortcomings - Irving is not a player like Morant or Rose who can change direction or even accelerate for dunks - so he needs more changes of direction to complete the round.

This created one of the most gorgeous styles of play in basketball history. But it also leads to the fact that Irving, who is recognized as the most skilled player, has never been able to increase his scoring output to the top (of course, Irving also has the reason that he does not like to commit fouls and prefers difficult finishing).

Reeves' previous games are similar to him to a certain extent.

But in the first few games of this season, we saw some different shots:

Reeves actually did not use Ayton's screen, but used Ayton's screen as a "cover" - a push to accelerate, leaving Edwards behind - and then in&out faked a pass and dribble, then connected with a short step and suddenly launched a one-handed high rebound, successfully challenging Gobert to protect the frame.

The way Reeves finished was wonderful. But what attracted me more was the acceleration of his first step.

Let’s continue watching.

This time the Turids are even more obvious.

During the offseason, Reeves said:

"They (Timberwolves) will always make unlimited defense changes from positions 1 to 5. This allows them to stay in front of us and let us play 1-on-1. I think I need to be more efficient in handling this situation, but I didn't do it in this series. But people can learn from this situation and then move forward."

Faced with Reed's defense change this time, Reeves showed the progress he had made after hard training after "reflection" - no extra movements, feinting and pretending to let Ayton immediately break the ball. Reed did not follow his first step, allowing Reeves to break in. Reed was difficult to operate - he had to jump to block the shot, but if he jumped, there would be a risk of being shaken by Reeves' fake move.

(Ayton's screen at the basket was also very good in this round)

It's another round where Reeves plays alone on Reid - has Reeves become faster or Reid has become slower? He couldn't keep up with Reeves anyway.

Continue reading below.

In the game against the Kings, Schroeder, who is known for his speed, pressed Reeves throughout the game - but this turned out to be a vulnerability for himself.

Reaves accelerated the ball with a change of direction. Schroeder was stuck behind the side. He chased all the way and failed to get back. Reeves attracted the frame protector and assisted Ayton in the alley-oop.

Reeves took advantage of the screen and accelerated the ball with his left hand. Monk was thrown far away. Faced with the frame protector, Reeves once again used a difficult one-handed ball to hit the board to finish.

In the round where Reeves' speed increased more clearly - Schroeder was singled out at the top of the arc. He very accurately grasped the timing of Schroeder's step forward, dug his feet and stepped on the ground to escape from the front in an instant, and faced Sa's frame protection and directly challenged for a layup.

During the transition, another push ball accelerated and passed Monk. (Ayton's fixed-point screen in the penalty area also helped a lot, but only if Reeves could instantly get rid of the upper-line defense and form a breakthrough)

Change the game:

Go to the other side of the screen, instantly get rid of the upper-line defense in the first step, rush directly into the middle, and face Hexion's block for a layup.

singled out Avdija. The explosive ball accelerated and passed directly face to face, broke into the penalty area and handed the ball to Hachimura for a three-pointer.

In these rounds, Reeves played a little different from the "Reeves" we have remembered in the past - he was more concise, and at the same time he was able to break away from the top line more frequently and effectively, and broke in directly from the most threatening area with a sharper posture to score/force the opponent to change their formation. (Instead of going around and shooting a mid-range shot that the opponent can accept)

He began to score in some ways that the opponent was absolutely unacceptable to. I think this is a sign that a scorer is starting to make some qualitative changes.

In addition to speed, there is also the improvement of confrontation ability and core strength.

Let’s look at the game against the Trail Blazers first:

After Xiaoli used the pick-and-roll to get past Kamara, facing Klingen who was protecting the frame, he took the initiative to find a confrontation. Without losing his balance, Klingen lost the space to take off, and hit the high board with his left hand.

This round is even more obvious - Xiaoli faced Klingen after the pick-and-roll, and he directly accelerated and knocked away the opponent's 219cm throw.

There are also scenes from the game against the Timberwolves:

Xiaoli flew McDaniels in front of him. Shannon came over from the wing and directly hit Reeves from the side. Terrence Shannon Jr. is a young and strong wing weighing 102kg, but Reeves's core strength is very good. He did not lose his balance due to this collision, but steadily raised his hand to shoot and score 2+1.

At the end of the second quarter, he faced Conley in a fast break. Although Conley is old, he has been a starter for two strong defensive teams, the Grizzlies and Wolves, and is known for his toughness. But in this round, he faced Reeves and retreated directly from the free throw line to the basket. Moreover, Reeves had not lost his balance yet, and immediately faced Maidan's long arm stuck in the air, scoring a difficult two-pointer..

I think these few rounds have allowed us to see the changes in Reeves' physical condition very clearly.

At the same time, it's not just the speed and confrontation that have become stronger - Reeves has also improved in some skills that help achieve the same goal.

Optimization/Learning of Technical Details

The first thing I want to say is that I have observed the improvement of Reeves’ assisting hand confrontation skills.

In the past, Reeves has always been a player who is good at pull-up jump shots and is also good at drawing fouls on the move. The only thing I think Reeves lacks is that he plays a little "too cleanly" on offense:

The following are some examples from two years ago.

Reeves cut in from the top of the arc hand-in-hand - the opponent approached him when he was about to enter the paint area. But Reeves - if we look at his movements, he avoided the defense and got to the basket, which means he made the shot more difficult. The final throw missed.

This round is also very typical. Reeves caught the ball and broke through - there was an obvious "opportunity" for the assistant hand to make contact with the opponent's torso - but he did nothing and chose to turn around and pass the defense, feint, and shoot.

is very beautiful, but as we said above, this kind of round has both abilities and limitations-his shooting is very difficult.

Even last season, Reeves had some of this problem - he singled out Sika in this round. The rhythm of the change of direction and shaking was very beautiful, but in the end, a good 2+1 opportunity broke out and failed. Why?

When given the opportunity to use his support hand, he chose to hide and leave. Let’s think about how he will play if he switches to SGA this round?

Then let’s look at this season:

Against the Timberwolves, he bombed the ball in disguise to find a confrontation during the transition. The assistant hand used very hidden movements to push away Reid without losing his balance, and scored in the mid-range shot.

The most obvious round:

Xiaoli played Randall in singles. Randall has always been known for his bull-like size, but in this round we can clearly see that Xiaoli changed and had a very hidden assist hand to exert force-repelling Randall's mid-range shot.

There is also a pair of pioneers.

A more subtle round - the camera angle is such that we can't even see anything. But obviously, with Kamara's body control, if Reeves didn't do something in this round, Kamara wouldn't have been able to fly so far just by stopping Kamara.

Accelerate the first step to pass the first person, rush into the paint area, use the concealed movement of the assistant hand + better core strength to push away the second person, feint, and then throw - one set is smooth and smooth.

Assistant hand creates space. Strictly speaking, this technique is of course suspected of being an offensive foul, but now most of the top offensive players have mastered the technique of using concealed movements of the auxiliary hand to create offensive space - SGA is the most typical example. (Last year, many bloggers on the Internet analyzed this technique of SGA)

For players like Reeves who lack absolute physical talent, it is very necessary to master some more "cunning" techniques.

Now, from many rounds, I feel that Xiaoli is playing more and more like an SGA whose physical fitness has been degraded. I believe that he has studied some of SGA's techniques.

Let’s look at shooting again.

"Reeves is not a very good three-point shooter." I had similar expressions in some words last season.

In addition to the fact that the three-point shooting rate is not stable enough and the output is not high enough in his career, one of the reasons that prompted me to make this judgment is that although Reeves has good hands and shooting range, his three-point shooting speed is not very fast.

Look at some of his past three-point shots:

This is the shot Reeves made two years ago.

I deliberately selected a non-open and an open round. We can see that at this time, Reeves is used to sinking the ball relatively low when shooting. If there is enough time, he will also bend his knees very low - the shooting speed is not fast. At the same time, the whole body is slightly forward when shooting, the center of gravity is relatively forward, and the balance is not perfect.

Last season, Reeves made some adjustments to his shooting, and we can see some changes in his shooting:

He no longer does such deep kneeling and sinking shots. Therefore, the shooting speed is significantly accelerated.

At the same time, the center of gravity of the body is also more vertical, the ball is "thrown upward" instead of "thrown forward", and the arc is also better.

I think this is the main reason why Reeves' shooting "evolved" last season. Let’s take a look at his ball-handling shots:

I specially selected two rounds that are similar to the ones below for comparison later.

It can be seen that last season, Reeves' three-point shooting with the ball became relatively smooth, and he gradually developed the prototype of an excellent ball-handling shooter.

Let’s look at this season again:

You can also see something.

Reeves' three-point shooting under this kind of high-pressure defense is obviously faster - he was no longer slow last season, but he still has the obvious characteristics of the "two-stage style": first lift the ball, and then follow up well.

But this season, his shooting has begun to feel a bit "one-step" - I am not a shooting expert, I can only talk about my feelings:

The overall lifting and moving of the ball with the hands are faster, and he no longer pursues the complete follow-up action-just stop at one point, these are one-step signature movements. In terms of force transmission, his force transmission used to rely on the waist for a transition, but now it feels like Curry's heel can't touch the ground and he can lift with just one foot..

Look at another one today:

After catching the ball, it no longer sinks much (it used to sink below the waist). As soon as I rub the ball in my hand, it rises immediately, very quickly.

In my opinion, Reeves' three-point shooting skills have definitely evolved this season. Maybe the current pressure of the main attack and lack of physical fitness have affected the feel, which is not obvious in the data, but we will definitely see it in the future.

And he continues to correct his shooting and make progress every year-this kind of understanding and learning ability is very scary-I will look at him extra high because of this.

Then, throw.

I know relatively little about the details of throwing techniques. I can’t see the action in this regard, so I don’t pretend to understand. There are friends in the comment area who know more about it after reading the article. You can chat with me.

Let me just give you some statistics:

So far this season, Reeves has taken 31% of his mid-range and short-range shots, surpassing 71% of players at the same position in the league; his mid-range and short-range field goal percentage is 74% - first in the league.

Official website breakdown data: 8 out of 10 throws this season, with a hit rate of 80%.

Trae Young, Brunson, and Doncic are all very good at throwing. We have seen how this technology can turn guards with mediocre physical fitness into extraordinary. Now, who's next?

After talking about technology, we should finally talk about the impact of changes in the “environment”.

The improvement brought by Ayton as a pick-and-roll partner.

Yes, Reeves' outstanding performance in the new season is inseparable from Ayton.

The most intuitive data is listed directly:

When the center is Ayton, no matter who else is, the Lakers led by Reeves this season scored 120.5 points per 100 possessions, with an effective shooting percentage of 58.9% and a turnover rate of 17.6%;

When the center is Hayes, Reeves led the team with only 114.3 points per 100 possessions, an effective shooting percentage of 55%, and a turnover rate that increased to 21.4%.

As early as after the first game of the season, I talked on WB that Ayton is more suitable to partner Reeves than Hayes.

Although Xiaoli's personal attack has made remarkable progress this season, he is actually not very good at feeding alley-oops and ground passes under intensive defense - Ayton can play more short pick-and-rolls and short downs. On the one hand, it is easier for Xiaoli to release the ball. It is equivalent to helping Xiaoli bear part of the development difficulty, and can help Xiaoli save some physical energy; on the other hand, Ayton has continuous defensive containment in the mid-range and at the basket, which is also more conducive to quick games and two-on-one games with Xiaoli in the mid-to-close range.

Let's look directly at the game round:

Against the Kings, the opponent's center, wing assists, and leading defenders all focused on Reeves. Especially the wing Schroeder tried to "close the door" to prevent Reeves from breaking in. What should I do?

A simple ground attack to score Ayton. Problem solved. The opponent leaves such a large space, which makes Reeves' task easier - but if it is Hayes, this round will most likely not be able to end when facing the bottom line defense.

On the opposite side, three people continue to surround Reeves - then continue to divide Ayton and let him hold a handful of throws in the sweet spot of mid-range and short range.

Ayton sets up a Re-screen for Reeves. Xiao Sa Shouping delays (Flat) and his attention is focused on Xiao Li, what should I do?

Let's find an angle and hit Ayton to the ground, and the problem will be solved.

The game against the Timberwolves is also very typical:

The Timberwolves' defensive strategy in this game is to lead the defense, Gobert protects the frame, and uses the Lakers' lack of shooters to help defend very aggressively (look at Conley's position) to form an all-round "package" for Reeves - how to solve it? Let’s look at Ayton.

Gobert completely left Ayton and retreated. DiVincenzo was chasing Reeves on the side and could not make an emergency stop jumper, but Ayton could also complete the tactical purpose of "mid-range military training for Gobert".

The same goes for these two rounds.

A very interesting thing - everyone criticizes Ayton for his soft finishing style. He likes to hide and play, and does not like to attack hard inside. But this turned out to be an advantage when facing Gobert:

Gobert is like a defense tower, with an "attack range", and the further the distance, the lower the damage - "I won't care about you if you don't come in";

And Ayton He prefers to hide and play, he doesn't like to challenge the frame protection, and his touch is very good. If you don't block his bottom plate and make him lose his balance, he can really score - Gobert can't get in front, and he finally slaps him. With Ayton's height and talent, it is really difficult to interfere.

When talking about Doncic last season, Mr. Anke mentioned a description: "Doncic uses the center as a 'prosthetic' to form a 2-on-1 by passing the ball." - Although Reeves is not as good at passing as Luka, due to Ayton's characteristics, the characteristics of the two can be well integrated - I now feel more and more that Reeves is using Ayton as a weapon that is an extension of himself in some rounds.

Or use a more Chinese term to describe it: "like arms using fingers."

Reeves created many opportunities for Ayton. In turn, Ayton's outside removal and his threat throughout the mid-range and short range also created opportunities for Reeves in many rounds (we have already seen some of the above rounds).

"DA (Ayton) is really good at observing the movements of defensive players defending the ball. Regardless of whether the opponent's pick-and-roll strategy focuses on the strong side, weak side, or zone defense, he is working hard to create opportunities for Austin (Reeves)." - As early as the preseason, Redick had already revealed to us the exchange between Ayton and Reeves.

Summary

I’m not sure there’s been a more inspiring story in the NBA over the years than Austin Reeves..

From an Arkansas farm boy to today's rising Lakers star and team leader - for five seasons, Reeves has worked hard and constantly switched positions to adapt to different lineups, constantly switching between various identities, but no matter what the coach asked him to do, in the end he was always able to complete the task well.

We once thought we had seen Reeves' ceiling. But now he has proven to us that he is just suppressing his full potential.

Which is more valuable, that he has such potential, or that he has such potential, but is still willing to obey all the coach's arrangements and do all the little things that help win the game? It's hard for me to choose.

I only know one thing: The Lakers are truly blessed with Austin Reeves.

Mini-game recommendations:Jack Pumpkin